Which of the words in (a), (b), (c) or (d) given below

Solution

The sentence talks about a particular presidential appointment and does not put this appointment into good light; the sentence even points the president's role as ceremonial in a derogatory manner. So, we need to choose words for the four positions accordingly. The first word is followed by the plural auxiliary 'have'; so, 'defamer' which is a singular verb, does not make up as the first word and eliminates option b). All 'critics', 'detractors' (people who disparage or criticize) and 'adversaries' (an opponent or rival) are possible replacement for the first word. The second word should be the one that can relate to the person being a 'stalwart' (follower/supporter) of the ruling party. Among the remaining options only, 'references', and 'credentials' are correct; this clearly eliminates options a) and d). Since the third word is preceded by the infinitive marker 'to', it will not take an adverb 'conciliatory' but the base verb 'conform' to follow the 'to-infinitive rule'; this eliminates option e). 'Essentially' also makes the sentence meaningful when used as the fourth word. Thus, the answer is option c).